Max Beerbohm:

An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Center

Creator:

Beerbohm, Max, 1872-1956

Title:

Max Beerbohm Art Collection

Dates:

1880s-1946, undated

Extent:

5 boxes, 2 oversize folders, 2 framed
paintings (154 items)

Abstract:

The collection consists of 151 original works by
Beerbohm and one reproductive print. The works consist mainly of caricatures of
early twentieth century London celebrities and political figures. In addition,
there
are two drawings of Beerbohm done by Sir Osbert Lancaster and by Frank
Richardson.

Access:

Open for research. A minimum of twenty-four hours is required to pull art materials
to the Reading Room.

Max Beerbohm, considered by some to be the best essayist, parodist, and cartoonist
of
his age, was born Henry Maximilian Beerbohm on August 24, 1872, in London, to
Julius
Ewald Beerbohm and his second wife, Eliza Draper Beerbohm. His early education
was
at a preparatory school in Orme Square, and then at Charterhouse. He attended
Merton
College at Oxford, 1890-1894, but did not receive a degree.

While at Oxford, Beerbohm published caricatures and essays in the Strand and other periodicals. In 1893 he became
acquainted with Sir William Rothenstein, who introduced him to Aubrey Beardsley
and
other members of the literary and artistic circle connected with the Bodley Head.
Through Beerbohm's half brother, noted actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, he
became acquainted with Oscar Wilde and his friends. By the time Beerbohm left
Oxford, he had developed his personality as a dandy and humorist.

In 1895 he traveled with Herbert Beerbohm Tree's theatrical company on a four-month
tour of American cities, working as Tree's secretary. After his return to London,
he
moved in with his sisters and widowed mother. He contributed drawings and essays
to
various periodicals, including the Yellow Book, the
Savoy, and the Daily
Mail. His first book of drawings, Caricatures of
Twenty-five Gentleman, and his first literary collection, The Works of Max Beerbohm, were both published in 1896.
In 1898 he succeeded George Bernard Shaw as drama critic of the Saturday Review, a position he held until 1910.

During the years he wrote for the Saturday Review, he
arranged four exhibitions of his drawings. In 1906 he received an assignment from
the Daily Mail to write a travel series on Italy, and
he became attracted to that country. In 1910 he married the American-born actress
Florence Kahn, resigned his position as drama critic, and moved with his wife
to
Rapallo, Italy, partly as an escape from the social demands and the expense of
living in London. Except for the time during the two World Wars when they lived
in
England, and occasional trips to England to take part in exhibitions of his
drawings, Max and Florence Beerbohm lived in Rapallo for the rest of their lives;
for a while, Ezra Pound was a neighbor.

Beerbohm published several collections of essays, parodies, and caricatures. In 1911,
he published his only novel, Zuleika Dobson. His last
volume of essays, A Variety of Things, was published
in 1928. His later years were spent in retirement. In 1935 the Beerbohms traveled
to
England so that Florence could appear in a revival of Peer
Gynt at the Old Vic; during this time Max created a successful series of
BBC broadcasts, London Revisited. He was knighted in
1939. After Florence's death in 1951, Beerbohm lived with his secretary, Elizabeth
Jungmann, whom he married a few weeks before his death. He died May 20, 1956,
in
Rapallo, Italy.

The Ransom Center's Max Beerbohm Art Collection is organized in two series: I. Works
by Max Beerbohm, and II. Works by Other Artists. The Works by Max Beerbohm are
arranged by accession number. The Works by Other Artists are arranged by artist.
Titles are transcribed from the items; cataloger's titles appear in brackets.

The Works by Max Beerbohm comprise most of the collection with 151 original works
and
one reproductive print. Most of the works are caricatures of celebrities and
political figures who were active in London in the first part of the twentieth
century. The collection includes a group of fourteen drawings done while Beerbohm
was at school at Charterhouse, and a group of six watercolor drawings of his wife,
Frances Kahn Beerbohm. There are two paintings—Edwardian
Parade and Literary Figures of the
Nineties—that hung in Beerbohm's home in Rapallo, Italy. The subjects of a
majority of the works were identified by Rupert Hart-Davis in 1971. An alphabetical
index of subjects is included in this finding aid.

The Works by Other Artists consists of two works: a drawing of Beerbohm by Sir Osbert
Lancaster, and a drawing of Beerbohm by Frank Richardson.

The Ransom Center's Art Collection also has a group of eleven drawings by Max
Beerbohm in its Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Collection, as well as a portrait painting
of
Beerbohm by Albert Rutherston in its Albert Rutherston Collection, and portrait
drawings of Beerbohm and Florence Kahn Beerbohm by Sir William Rothenstein in
its
William Rothenstein Collection. The Ransom Center also has Max Beerbohm materials
in
its Manuscripts Collection (including a portfolio of drawings and sketches drawn
by
Beerbohm while at Charterhouse, a caricature drawing of George Street and Beerbohm
bound into a group of manuscripts, and sketches on manuscripts), its Library,
and
its Photography Collection.